Astray

by Emma Donoghue

A collection of short stories to blow your mind, with a nerve and characters that stay with you because they feel so REAL and yet so irritatingly human in all their pitifulness and power. The 14 stories are all inspired by facts and people who travelled across the Atlantic to a new land of opportunity, hope and glory ... and what they found once there. Very moving and beautifully written.

Extract

He couldn´t deny it. Then wasn´t there a row, not half!My dear boy, I can hardly get the words out, but he´s only been and gone and sold you to the circus! It´s a shocking smirch on the good name of the London Zoological Society, that´s what I say. Such sneaking, double-dealing treachery behind closed doors. In the best interests of the British public, my hat! Two thousand pounds, , that´s the price the Superintendent put on you, though it´s not as if they need the funds, and who´s the chief draw but the Children´s Pal, the beloved Pachydermic Behemoth, as the papers call you?